I got a job with Exxon in New Orleans right out of college – I graduated in December 1978, a BSME with honors from the University of Texas in Austin. (My folks retired in Lago Vista, north of town, on Lake Travis.) I went to Exxon’s drilling engineering tech school and was promoted into their exploration drilling group a year later. The walls of my nice office on O’Keefe Street had sci-fi space posters.
Writing on the wall?
I quit Exxon for some unforeseeable reason, took a trip around with my sister for a while up to Vancouver and back, returned to Austin, and enrolled in the University of Texas. I signed up for classes in Roman history and antiquity. (Not sure where that came from.) I withdrew before the semester ended.
Why?
Fooling around the orbital numbers of the planets, I keyed on a beautiful little graphic that explained all the orbital parameters in a single loop. I wrote it up in a manuscript called “A Journal of 21st Century Technology” and sent copies off to several publishers and also to NASA. I got a letter back from NASA . . .
Your concepts about the Unified Field Theory appear to be so profound as to be years ahead of the current scientific thinking in the areas in which you delved.
Notice the TAB Books stamp on the letter – I’d sent the letter to Kim Tabor at TAB Books, their acquisitions editor. TAB was later purchased by McGraw-Hill, and Kim Tabor was the editor for my two McGraw-Hill trade books, published my first year in grad school at Texas.
I tried to promote my research, or get the book published, but eventually ended up on the streets of Minneapolis. Tired of sleeping on park benches, I enlisted in the Army. I got the highest score on the ASVAB tests they had ever seen and got my choice of any job at any duty station.
I chose 93E Weather Observer at White Sands Missile Range, ground zero of the US space effort, and an alternate landing site of the NASA Space Shuttle. The Space Shuttle Columbia landed there on March 3, 1983. Just a few months before I arrived.
As soon as I was on post, I volunteered for permanent night shift at C Station, bought an Apple IIE computer, and got to work crunching numbers to develop the tech NASA had liked so much – the solar system model.
The folks around the barracks used to call me “The Professor” because our dorm room was full of computers and printouts, and my head was always in the books.
My roommate E4 Ken Barkman got wind of a new laser contract from ASL (Atmospheric Science Labs, our parent organization). He took a copy of the NASA letter and sent it to the post commander, MG Niles Fulwyler (Major General, 2 stars). He set up a meeting with two scientists from the High Energy Laser Project.
I slapped together a few wild laser ideas, made a bunch of posters, and Ken Barkmen helped me do the 2-hour presentation to the brass. Didn’t pan out, but I did get some good comments on my solar system research. (There are parallels between gravitational forces and atomic forces that we’ll get into later.)
[Seal: DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE / UNITED STATES OF AMERICA]
DEPARTMENT OF THE ARMY
US ARMY WHITE SANDS MISSILE RANGE
WHITE SANDS MISSILE RANGE, NEW MEXICO 88002
REPLY TO
ATTENTION OF
STEWS-CG
23 JAN 1984
Specialist Fourth Class William H. Clark, II
HHC – ASL Box 77
White Sands Missile Range, NM 88002
- I have had the papers which you left with me at the end of our meeting on 9 December 1983 reviewed independently by three WSMR scientists. The reviewers were Dr. Ralph W. Dressel, Physicist at the Nuclear Effects Laboratory; Dr. John Davies, High Energy Laser Program Manager; and Dr. Richard H. Duncan, Technical Director and Chief Scientist.
- The conclusion of these reviewers is that your work contains some conceptual errors and that it would not be feasible to devise experimental verification of your ideas.
- As commander of a test and evaluation agency I have no authority to expend funds for research and development, that being the mission of other elements of the U.S. Army. Research within the Test and Evaluation Command is strictly limited by policy and regulation to efforts intended to improve test instrumentation and methodology.
- For the above reasons I have decided to take no further action on this matter. Knowing that you will be disappointed in my decision, I hope that you will continue to serve the Army well during the remainder of your enlistment. Perhaps, as you suggest in your last letter, you will be able to resume your scientific interests at a later time. In any case, I appreciate your sincere and good intentions in bringing your work to my attention.
[Signature: Niles J. Fulwyler]
NILES J. FULWYLER
Major General, USA
Commanding